In theory, banks should be doing a heap of hiring now. Bonuses have been paid at U.S, and some European firms, and finance recruiters tell us they're so busy they can barely breathe. This being the case, who's being hired? According to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register, not many people at all. Or at least, we can say that not many people have been newly registered by banks with the FCA, which is usually a lagged proxy for recruitment in London.
Of the new recruits who were registered by Goldman, Credit Suisse, Citi and Nomura in February, the ones below stand out. And this is what they each say about your chances of getting a job any time soon. Notably, almost all of the people added in February very junior or very senior. There wasn't much hiring at VP level.
Who's Luke: Luke was an associate in UK investment banking at UBS. He studied at Oxford University.
What Luke's new job is telling you: Banks are looking at their corporate broking teams ahead of an expected eruption of UK-based IPOs. Now's a good time to be looking for a role in the area.
Who's Filippa? Filippa is a super-international multi-lingual person who's been educated in Switzerland, China and Singapore and has spent time living in Portugal. She started at Goldman in January 2014, after completing a summer internship which ended in August 2013.
What Filippa's new job is telling you: Goldman likes to hire members of the cosmopolitan elite. It will also take you on a summer internship and make you an offer of a job starting a few months later. In other words, you don't have to do a summer in your second year of university if you want to join Goldman's analyst class.
Who's Vladimir? Vladimir formerly worked for Macquarie, where he was a natural resources analyst.
What Vladimir's new job is telling you: It's still possible to move from one bank to another and to secure a promotion. Vladimir himself went from analyst to associate. He also ditched Macquarie for Credit Suisse before Macquarie paid its bonuses, despite working in one of Macquarie's key teams. Interesting.
Who's Lofti? Lofti is a senior FX options trader who left UniCredit at the end of last year. At Credit Suisse he will reportedly report into Simon Hards, global head of FX trading and be head of emerging market FX options trading for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
What Lofti's new job is telling you: Regardless (or maybe because of) the looming FX price manipulation scandal, banks are busy hiring in new senior FX traders. Needless to say, there's no implication that Lofti has anything to do with the fixing accusations. Most notably, his own career suggests that jumping from firm to firm need not be detrimental to your progress: Lofti spent around 18 months at Unicredit after spending less than a year at Macquarie. He previously workied for Nomura, JP Morgan and Dresdner Bank over a four-year period between 2004 and 2008.
Who's Cosimo? He's kind of new to banking. After briefly working as an intern for Banca IMI in 2009, Cosimo went into investment consulting and then became an 'index specialist' at FTSE instead.
What Cosimo's new job is telling you: There are back doors into the banking industry. And Citi, despite having cut costs from its equities unit, is still hiring selectively for the business.
Who's Michael? He's a very senior equity salesperson who spent eight years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was most recently head of EMEA equity sales, before leaving for hedge fund C8 Investments and then going to CHT Properties, a mysterious property company seemingly including members of his family.
What Michael's new job is telling you? Leaving a bank for a hedge fund may not be a good idea.
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